Guns in Georgia Schools

Lowndes County, GA - The vote to let school administrators carry guns has been postponed in Georgia, but it doesn't really affect Lowndes County.

That's because the school board and the sheriff's office already have plans to put an armed resource officer in every school.

Chris Prine, Lowndes County Sheriff, stated, "I won't feel comfortable until we have resource officers in every school."

Lawmakers in Atlanta have postponed a vote to give school administrators the ability to carry guns, but there's already nine armed officers in Lowndes County schools, and there are plans to add more.

Wes Taylor, Lowndes County School Superintendent, stated, "they're there all day every day and just become another staff member where everybody's comfortable around them. And we just again believe that that is our best deterrent towards being a soft target."

The goal of the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office is to implement these resource officers with no additional burden to Lowndes County tax payers. Those officers would be new hires.

Chris Prine, Lowndes County Sheriff, adds, "I can't cut the deputies on the street that patrol. I cannot afford to keep the county safe with less than I have now on the street. So what we are trying to do is get our budget amended to hire six new personnel."

The goal is to get the needed funding for those six new hires from the Sheriff's Office and the Lowndes County Board of Education. But those budgets haven't been finalized.

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